Apple's new Magic Trackpad offers desktop Mac users a multitouch trackpad alternative to the mouse, designed to match its super slim aluminum keyboard.

The Magic Trackpad follows Apple's introduction of the Magic Mouse last year, which was similarly launched alongside a new batch of iMacs. New iMacs continue to ship with a Magic Mouse by default, leaving the new trackpad a $69 accessory (not an upgrade; if you buy one, you still also get a Magic Mouse with your order).

New Mac minis ship without a mouse, while Mac Pros ship with a wired mouse; neither product currently offers the Magic Trackpad as a bundling option, but the new trackpad works with any modern Mac capable of running Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.3.

A trackpad for desktops

The Magic Trackpad isn't Apple's first trackpad for desktop computer; the company bundled an external wired trackpad with the Twentieth Anniversary Mac, a limited edition model that shipped in 1997. That $7,500 system was built from spare notebook parts, so it made sense that it shipped with a trackpad that optionally embedded into its keyboard wrist rest.

Beyond that experimental venture, Apple has shipped Macs with a mouse, which offers greater positional accuracy than the first trackpads. However, the new technology being invested in notebook systems has made the flat surface of the trackpad more competitive with a freely positionable mouse.

Apple began pioneering multitouch pinch, swipe and rotation features on its MacBook trackpads with the MacBook Air in 2008. The latest MacBook models include a variety of two, three and four fingered gestures, including two fingered secondary tap, inertial scrolling, pinching and screen zoom, three fingered swipe navigation or window dragging, and four fingered invocation of Exposé and app switching.

Progress on the mouse front has come slower, with Apple offering little more than a simple pointing device until the Mighty Mouse appeared in 2005 with a roller ball and three other programmable buttons. Last year's Magic Mouse added a subset of multitouch gestures recognition via its new touch sensitive cover. However, a variety of trackpad gestures simply can't translate onto the back of a mouse, or would be to clumsy to perform.

Trackpad, untethered

The new Magic Trackpad presents a full featured external trackpad with feature parity with its notebook siblings. The primary difference is that it's larger, with 80% more surface area. Magic Trackpad takes up about the same hand-sized amount of room as a mouse, but you don't need to move it around, so it might be preferable to use if you have a limited amount of desk space next to your computer.

Like the matching Apple Wireless Keyboard, the new Magic Trackpad is a thin aluminum surface propped up at a slight angle on its battery compartment. It ships in a very small box similar to iWork, with two AA Energizer batteries installed and ready to use.

Similar to the modern, clickable generation of MacBook trackpads, the Magic Trackpad works as a single big button. But rather than being a glass surface that depresses into the aluminum shell of the MacBook to click, the external trackpad's buttons are its front two feet. This allows you to both lightly tap on its surface, and to press down to register a click, which you can feel and hear.

On page 2 of 2: Easy setup, familiar to use.

Easy setup, familiar to use

Setting the Magic Trackpad up is easy: simply press its power button (the batteries are already installed) and its tiny green light illuminates. On your Mac, choose "Set up a new Bluetooth device" from the Bluetooth menu and the system will discover and connected to the new peripheral in two mouse clicks.

If you're used to using a MacBook trackpad, Magic Trackpad will be immediately familiar. It features the same smooth layer of glass (which is more readily apparent when looking at the edge of Magic Trackpad up close, below), providing an identical, low resistance feel to your touch.

The only real difference is that it's placed off to the side of your keyboard like a mouse, rather than being set between your hands on a notebook keyboard. Clicking, dragging, selecting text and using multitouch gestures are all identical to a built-in trackpad.

There's no option to use the Magic Trackpad as a drawing tablet like a Wacom digitizer, with or without a pen; it's exclusively a finger driven trackpad. Unlike Bluetooth keyboards, you can't associate the Magic Trackpad with iPad either, as the tablet isn't designed to use a remote pointing device.

You might prefer a mouse for some operations, and Apple isn't positioning the Magic Trackpad as an alternative to its Magic Mouse, only as an additional accessory. But if you work on a notebook a lot and miss the additional gestures and stationary operation of a trackpad over gripping a mouse, you might like the new Magic Trackpad option.

I've seen posts complaining that the Wacom tablets are better.
For pen input, yes. Its not a competing product to that.
But I got the recent Wacom pen/touch, and while I sometimes use the pen for drawing (less often then I'd thought), I found it unusable as a touchpad for normal use.

The touch pad on MacBooks is FAR superior, and I'd expect this to equal that performance.

I'd pick this up in a minute if I didn't already have a Magic Mouse and Wacom on my desk.

How is it a con that you may prefer something entirely different from what is being reviewed? I hate to tell you but there are MANY things I prefer over a $69 trackpad, the first on that very very long list being a $68 trackpad. I think there's also an Aston martin on that list, in case you are interested.

How is it a con that you may prefer something entirely different from what is being reviewed? I hate to tell you but there are MANY things I prefer over a $69 trackpad, the first on that very very long list being a $68 trackpad. I think there's also an Aston martin on that list, in case you are interested.

QFT
This reviewer needs to get a grip. Next we'll be complaining that our keyboards don't make waffles. It's a trackpad! Review it as such. Nothing more, nothing less.

How is it a con that you may prefer something entirely different from what is being reviewed? I hate to tell you but there are MANY things I prefer over a $69 trackpad, the first on that very very long list being a $68 trackpad. I think there's also an Aston martin on that list, in case you are interested.

This will go the same way as that overpriced web cam Apple made years back. Doomed to fail.

If you thought iSight was overpriced back then, you'd better not look at what it goes for on eBay now. Funny how Apple's "failed" products wind up fetching more on the secondary market than many new similar products.

There's a program called Inklet that turns MacBook trackpads into pen tablets... I'm willing to bet that it would work with the Magic Trackpad as well.tenonedesign.com/inklet.php
There's a trial version; the full version costs $25.00. You can also use it with a Pogo Stylus for more features.